Art of making motion picture cartoons



Sept. 20, 1938. 'M. FLEISCHER 2,130,541

r ART or MAKING monon PICTURE CARTOONS Filed Dec. 14, 1936 IHHHHIHIHHH Hl NVENTO R MAX /2 [ma/1? A ORNEYS Patented Sept. 20, 1938 PATENT OFFICEART OF MAKING MOTION PICTURE CARTOONS Max Fleischer, New York, N. Y.

Application December 14, 1936, Serial No. 115,774

8 Claims. (01. 88-16) This invention relates to improvements in themaking of motion picture cartoons containing an outlined animated figurein front of a background, and has for one of its objects in the processof producing said cartoons the elimination of the step of drawing ortracing the outlines and other forming lines of the animated figure inink upon each of the series of drawings on Celluloid which arephotographed in succession on a length of motion picture film. Anotherobject of the invention is the production on a finished cartoon film ofan animated figure provided with an outline of a superior and moreartistic quality than that now appearing on such films.

In the practice of producing motion picture films heretofore followedthe drawings which are photographed usually consist of a large number ofsheets of Celluloid or other transparent material containing theanimated portions of the complete drawing to be photographed, which aresuperimposed in succession upon an inanimate background. This avoids thenecessity of making a complete drawing of the entire picture for eachframe of the finished film, since a separate drawing of only thatportion of the whole drawing to appear animated is required for eachframe and but .one drawing of the inanimate background suffices. for along sequence of frames. In carrying out that practice a series of linedrawings of the animated foreground figure in progressive stages ofanimation are usually first drawn with lead pencil or ink on paper orother suitable material, and to produce an artistic and satisfactorymotion picture involving such a combination of an animated foregroundfigure and a background, it has been the usual practice to provide thedrawing of the animated figure with a contrasting outline to make itstand out from and not blend with the background. A tracing of each ofthese line drawings is then made in black ink upon sheets of transparentCelluloid placed over the drawings and the area within the outline onthe Celluloid sheet is rendered opaque by the application of a suitablesubstance to the back of the sheet which also makes it capable of beingphotographed by reflected light. This trac ing of the outline and otherforming lines of the figure of the drawing by hand in ink on each of theCelluloid sheets is a long, tedious and expensive operation due to theextremely large number of such drawings which arerequired for a motionpicture cartoon and requires the services of a large number of artiststo complete the work within a reasonable time and also frequentlyinvolves a lack of uniformity in the tracings because of the differentdegrees of skill and individual characteristics of the artists makingthe tracings, one of whom, for instance, may be disposed to make thelines somewhat broader orheavier than another. Moreover the artistic 5quality of the lines in the original drawing is frequently lost in thetracing. The series of Celluloid sheets containing the opaqued tracingswhich form the animated foreground are then placed in succession overthe drawing of the 10 background and successively photographed.

According to the method of my invention, it has been made possible todispense with the necessity of tracing in ink upon the Celluloid sheetsthe outline and other forming lines of the animated drawing, which willbe apparent from the following description of my invention andbyreference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a line drawing of an animated foreground figure.

Fig. 2-is a photographic negative on motion picture film of the drawingof Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a positive print on motion picture film of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is adrawing for a background scene.

Fig. 5 is a sheet of transparent Celluloid having thereon an opaquedarea corresponding in reverse to the line drawing of the animatedforeground figure shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view in perspective of an arrangement ofvarious elements used in practicing my invention.

Fig. 7 is a view of one frame of a motion picture film made inaccordance with my invention.

A series of outline drawings representing the animated foreground figurein progressive stages of animation are first drawn in any convenientsize with a black lead pencil or other suitable means capable ofproducing a substantially opaque line on thin white paper or similartrans- 40 lucent material, one of which is shown in Fig. 1, whichdrawings may also contain other forming lines within the outline. Theseoutline'drawings are then photographed seriatim on successive frames ofmotion picture film, and in doing this,

. I prefer to use what is known as positive stock \and somewhatover-exposed it so as to produce Fa negative of great contrast in whichthe pencil 5 outline and any other' forming lines that may be within theoutlines on the drawings will appear as transparent lines and theremaining portions of the drawings substantially opaque as shown in Fig.2. From this negative, I print in the usual way, a positive on motionpicture film in which the lines will be substantially opaque and thebalanc transparent as shown in Fig. 3.

A sheet of transparent Celluloid is placed over the back of each of theaforesaid line drawings shown in Fig. 1, and the area of the Celluloidsheet circumscribed by the outline visible through the thin paper andCelluloid is then rendered opaque by the application of a suitablesubstance such as an ink or pigment which will also present a smoothsurface through the Celluloid sheet that is capable of beingphotographed by reflected light. The result of the operation is shown inFig. 5. It should be observed that where the drawing of the animatedfigure contains other forming lines within the outline the color orshade of the opaquing substance used should not be such as to produce adenser image when photographed on the final negative film than thatproduced thereon by printing from the positive film shown in Fig. 3 andthus obliterate the forming lines within the outline of the drawing.Moreover, in the opaquing operation different colors or shades of thepigment may be used on different portions of the area within the outlineand thus give greater detail to the picture of the animated figure inthe finished cartoon.

Referring to Fig. 6, l is the positive film shown in Fig. 3 which isthen placed in the camera with and in front of the raw or unexposednegative film 2 to be used in making the final negative of the cartoonwith the emulsion sides of both films in contact. 3 is one of theCelluloid sheets with the opaque figure thereon as shown in Fig. 5.

These sheets are then placed one by one upon the.

background drawing 4, also shown in Fig. 4, with the side containing thepigment towards the background drawing and in proper sequence so thateach of said Celluloid sheets will correspond with the particularframe-on the positive film photographically produced from the sameoriginal outline drawing such as shown in Fig. 1. Each of the sheets 3and the positives l are so positioned that the image of the said opaqueportion of each of the Celluloid sheets 3 will be in register with andoccupy the area on the film 2 embraced within the opaque outline on thefilm l, with the result that when the said background drawing and theopaqued animated foreground figure on the Celluloid sheet placed over itare photographed by the lens 5 the outline as well as other forminglines of the animated foreground drawing is at the same time printed onthe said film 2 thus securing a finished negative of an animated figurewith a circumscribing outline and other forming lines in combinationwith the background from which a finished positive such as shown in Fig.'7 may be printed in the usual way for projection purposes.

It is obvious that various modifications of the method as illustratedand described may be made without departing from the spirit of myinvention, for instance, the line drawing instead of being made in blackon a white surface as shown in Fig. 1 may be made in white on a black orequivalent surface so that the photographic lines of the foregroundfigure shown in Fig. 3 may be produced upon the film without thenecessity of making the negative shown in Fig. 2, and when I use theterms black and white with respect to the drawing of the foregroundfigure, I wish to be understood as including any contrasting shades orcolors from which the lines of the drawing may be photographicallyreproduced as opaque lines on a transparent surface. Again, thebackground need not be a drawing but may be of any description, and thetransparent positive of the line drawing need not be placed in contactwith the sensitive film in the camera but may be positioned at adistance therefrom and either within or without the camera.

What I claim is:

1. The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline substantially black upon a substantially white surface,photographically making transparent positives of said drawings on astrip of motion picture film with said outline on said positivessubstantially opaque and positioning said positive film in front of andin contact with a strip of unexposed motion picture film in a camera;superimposing a separate sheet of transparent material upon each of saidseries of drawings and rendering the portion of said sheet appearingwithin the outline of said drawing opaque to and reflective of light,successively positioning said transparent sheets in front of 'abackground, and successively photographing said sheets and saidbackground through successive of said positives upon said strip ofunexposed film in the camera.

2. The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline substantially black upon a substantially white surface,photographically making transparent positives of said drawings on astrip of motion picture film with the lines thereof including saidoutline on said positives substantially opaque and positioning saidpositive film in front of and in contact with a strip of unexposedmotion picture film in a camera; superimposing a separate sheet oftransparent material upon each of said series of drawings and renderingthe portion of said sheet appearing within the outline of said drawingopaque to and reflective of light, successively positioning saidtransparent sheets in front of a background, and successivelyphotographing said sheets and said background through successive of saidpositives upon said strip of unexposed film in the camera.

3. The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribed outline, photographically reproducing lines of said drawingsincluding said outline substantially opaque on a strip of transparent motion picture film and positioning said strip in front of and in contactwith a strip of unerz posed motion picture film in a camera; superimposing a separate sheet of transparent material upon each of said seriesof drawings and rendering the portion of said sheet appearing within theoutline of said drawing opaque to and reflective of light, successivelypositioning said transparent sheets in front of a background, andsuccessively photographing said sheets and said background throughsuccessive of said line reproductions of said drawings upon said stripof unexposed film in the camera.

The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline, photographically reproducing the outlines on said drawingssubstan tially opaque on a strip of transparent motion picture film andpositioning said strip in front of and in contact with a strip ofunexposed mo tion picture film in a camera; superimposing a separatesheet of transparent material upon each of said series of drawings andrendering the portion of said sheet appearing within the outline of saiddrawing opaque to and reflective of light, successively positioning saidtransparent sheets in front of a background, and successivelyphotographing said sheets and said background through successive of saidreproduced outlines of said drawings upon .said strip of unexposed filmin the camera.

5. The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline substantially black upon a substantially white surface,photographically making transparent positives of said drawings on astrip of motion picture film with said outline on said positivessubstantially opaque and positioning said positive film in front of andin contact with a strip of unexposed motion picture film in a camera;rendering opaque to and reflective of light the portion of each of aseries of separate sheets of transparent material corresponding in shapeto the portion of each of said series of drawings contained within theoutline of said drawing, successively positioning said transparentsheets in front of a background, and successively photographing saidsheets and said background through successive of said positives uponsaid strip of unexposed film in the camera.

6. The method of making motion picturecartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline substantially black upon a substantially white surface,photographically making transparent positives of said drawings on astrip of motion picture film with the lines thereof including saidoutline on said positives substantially opaque and positioning saidpositive film in front of and in contact with a strip of unexposedmotion picture film in a camera; rendering opaque to and reflective oflight the portion of each of a series of separate sheets of transparentmaterial corresponding in shape to the portion of each of said series ofdrawings contained within the outline of said drawing,

successively positioning said transparent sheets in front of abackground, and successively photographing said sheets and saidbackground through successive of said positives upon said strip ofunexposed film in the camera.

'7. The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings of an animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline, photographically reproducing the lines of said drawingsincluding said outline substantially opaque on a strip of 'transparentmotion picture film and positioning said strip in front of and incontact with a strip of unexposed motion picture film in a camera;rendering opaque to and reflective of light the portion of each of aseries of separate sheets of transparent material corresponding in shapeto the portion of each of said series-of drawings contained within theoutline of said drawing, successively positioning said transparentsheets in front of a background, and successively photographing saidsheets and said background.

through successive or said line reproductions of said drawings upon saidstrip of unexposed film in the camera.

8. The method of making motion picture cartoons which includes making aseries of drawings ofan animated foreground figure with a circumscribedoutline, photographically reproducing the outlines on said drawingssubstantially opaque on a strip of transparent motion picture film andpositioning said strip in front of and in contact with a strip ofunexposed motion picture film in a camera; rendering opaque to andreflective of light the portion of'each of a series of separate sheetsof transparent material corresponding in shape to the portion of each ofsaid series of drawings contained within the outline of said drawing,successively positioning said transparent sheets infront of abackground, and successively photographing said sheets and saidbackground through successive of said reproduced outlines of saiddrawings upon said strip of unexposed film in the camera.

MAX FLEISCHER.

